INHERITANCE OF ENGLISH LITERATI] 

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DELIVERED BEFORE THE MIAMI CHAPTER 



ALPHA DELTA PHI SOCIETY, '; 



ON THE EVENING OF AUGUST II, 1846. 






By JAMES C. MOFFAT, A. M. 

Professor of the Roman Language and Literature, and of Esthetics. 



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PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE CHAPTEl 



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1 



INHERITANCE OF ENGLISH LITERATURE: 



AN ADDRESS, 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE MIAMI CHAPTER 



ALPHA DELTA PHI SOCIETY, 



ON THE EVENING OF AUGUST 11, 1846, 



By JAMES C. MOFFAT. 



PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE CHAPTE] 



CINCINNATI: 

3 . A. JAMES, WALNUT STREET. 



HENKY, BAHNARD AND CO., PRINTERS. 



1846. 



X 






JAN 21 1921 ' 



i 






INHERITANCE OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 



Young Gentlemen of the Alpha Delta Phi Society : 

In the discharge of the duty to which you hare appointed me, 
upon this occasion, I design to bring before you a period of 
history, not often treated, and yet of some importance to the Hter- 
ature of our native tongue. Of the various eras recorded in our 
literary annals the more recent are well known. The great 
minds of the Commonwealth, of the days of Elizabeth, and of 
the great Reformation, have furnished the materials of many an 
eloquent discourse ; but there was another age, prior to all these, 
yea, more than a century earlier than the last mentioned, which, 
in regard to the names by which it was honored, and the works 
it produced, was not inferior to many a one of greater notoriety, 
while, in at least one other respect, it is the most important of all. 

The long and prosperous reign of Edward the third is not often 
the subject of dissertation in a literary point of view; yet is well 
deserving of study on account of what it accomplished, but still 
more for what it suggested. 

It is difficult, perhaps impossible, to form any thing like an 
adequate conception of the amount to which the present is in- 
debted to the past ; a debt many items of which we not only 
fail to acknowledge, but of their existence never dream. To 
many an inferior generation, does our own stand indebted for its 
superiority ; and much by us esteemed of modern growth is purely 
the interest of an old inheritance. Not only Wie furniture of our 
minds ; but even the manner of setting it forth, is hereditary to 
a greater extent than the most reflecting are accustomed to 
perceive. 



f' \ 



No person requires to be told that language is in the main the 
gift of our fathers ; but I think we do not often attempt to esti- 
mate the amount, in manner and train of thinking and expres- 
sion, which we owe to a few eminent writers. What would 
have been the character of our native tongue, had no author 
yet appeared in it, we cannot pretend to say ; but one thing is 
evident, that many a feature which it now presents, would have 
been wanting. For, upon a comparison of successive periods in 
its history, we find its character forming by the process of accu- 
mulation; every great author contributing something which is 
afterwards an essential ingredient, while he adopts the general 
principle and manner of his predecessors. And as we trace the 
history backward, though we miss, one after another, many 
familiar features, yet even in the earliest authors are to be found 
certain distinguishing traits, which are no less characteristic of 
our literature in the present day. 

The style of Addison is now very familiar, and appears the 
natural offspring of English thought and feehng; but where was 
the style of Addison, before Addison wrote ? It was not in 
literature. Was it to be found in conversation, and did Addison 
take it thence ? Very few can yet attain unto it, even with the 
model before them. But the style of Addison did not differ, by 
any violent degree, from what had been already established as 
classical EngHsh. For, although he introduced a variety, he 
had been educated upon the works of his predecessors ; and from 
them adopted all the essentials of a native style. He is still 
more English than Addisonian. 

Thus it must be with every original writer of later times ; while 
he adds something of his own to the edifice which he aids in 
erecting, his addition must be in conformity to the plan of the 
preceding work, and of course, a greater amount of credit must 
still be due to those by whom its foundations were laid. And a 
nation's literary character must be mainly the aggregate of the 
mental habits of all its authors, thus silently but inevitably 
pressed forward by the excellencies of their predecessors. 
There are, it is true, certain qualities which have been de- 
veloped, by the repeated effort of the writer to reach the con- 
sciousness of his reader ; but the taste of readers, as well as 



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writers, is formed to a great degree by the hereditary literary 
manner; they have been educated by it, and are daily partaking 
of its iniluence. And although the literary always differs from 
the conversational manner, we have perfect assurance that re- 
fined conversation would not have been what it is, but for liter- 
ature. Consequently, many of the distinguishing features of 
national literature, must be due to the intellectual character of 
the first great authors, perpetuated from age to age. Such an 
impress from the character of Moses remained upon Jewish liter- 
ature to its latest day. Such was the dominion of Homer over 
the ancient heathen world ; of Dante and Petrarch over modern 
Italy ; and thus, in English, we owe more than has ever yet been 
acknowledged, to the great minds who first modulated our native 
tongue. 

I purpose, then, to call your attention to some of the items of 
this old inheritance, their nature, the causes which gave rise to 
them, and the obligations they impose. 

And, in the first place, the causes, although extremely varied, 
may be classed under a few heads, as direct or indirect ; as 
springing from the nation itself, or operating on it from abroad. 

Now, in order the better to comprehend this division of the 
subject, let us contemplate for a few moments a point in time im- 
mediately antecedent to that first literary era. 

If, from the present date, we look back along the history of the 
land of our fathers, just five hundred years, attention will be 
arrested by a period of more than common interest to the student 
of English literature ; on account, not of what it had then become, 
but of the remarkable convergence of causes tending to the pro- 
duction of that character which it has now borne so long. Up 
to the year 1346, our native tongue could lay no claim to liter- 
ary honors. It could not present one author, not even a single 
book, worthy of notice. A few ballads and rhyming chronicles, 
such as those of Robert of Gloucester, of Manning of Brunne, 
and the Sir Tristram of Thomas the Rhymour, constituted the 
only store of native reading. But at the date which I have 
assumed, a spirit of inquiry was awakening throughout the land, 
and learning had become an object of very general pursuit. The 
multitudes who then thronged the universities of Britain, were 



great beyond all comparison with those of any other time. We 
are informed by contemporary and respectable authorities, that 
not less than thirty thousand students were then in attendance at 
Oxford alone ; and, what is of more importance, there were great 
minds at work among both the teachers and the taught. It was 
the flourishing period of the illustrious Okham and Bradwardine, 
and many others, whose useful labors have failed to render their 
names familiar to modern ears. Among their pupils were some 
who have been more fortunate in this respect than themselves. 
Such were Chaucer, Langlande, Gower, Mandeville and Wyck- 
liffe, who were then silently forming the minds destined to direct 
the views and mould the taste of a mighty people. 

The learning of that age was still chiefly employed with meta- 
physical theology; although not so strictly confined as that of 
the preceding to scholastic subtilties. The philosophy of the 
schoolmen continued to be taught ; but their day was drawing 
to a close. The celebrated William Okham was their only 
representative of superior ability ; and the energetic minds 
of the rising generation were taking a new direction. Old 
Roger Bacon had already indicated that course and method of 
investigation which was afterwards so well defined by his more 
fortunate namesake. Clearer, .more practical and common-sense 
views of things and their relations, were gradually advancing 
among the young scholars of that epoch. 

King Edward the Third, then just entering upon that career of 
innovation which marked his illustrious reign, was himself one 
of the most promising signs of the times. Being of great'natural 
ability, well educated and of a literary turn, he found it as con- 
ducive to his profit, as it was agreeable to his taste, to favor 
native talent. He spent much moriey in the collection of valua- 
ble books ; and encouraged the pursuits of others whose time 
could be more exclusively devoted to such labor. It was a cen- 
tury before the invention of printing, and copies of books were 
multiplied only at great labor and expense; and even pubhc 
libraries were but scantily supplied. The library of Oxford had, 
up to nearly that date, been confined to the compass of a few 
mouldy boxes in the corner of a cellar. But, stimulated by the 
example of the king and the increasing demand for books, many 



now turned their attention to the business of collecting find tran- 
scribing all the valuable works to be found. Still the books 
which were then worthy of transcription, being in foreign lan- 
guages, were inaccessible to the body of the people. 

For two hundred and fifty years, the language of England had 
been unsettled. Saxon and French had contended for the mas- 
tery, and the result was entirely in favor of neither. A new lan- 
guage had arisen from their combination, and now for several ages 
formed the popular speech. But it was held in contempt by the 
learned and the noble. French was employed in business and 
refined society, and comprehended most productions of a tempo- 
rary interest or of amusement, while Latin alone was deemed 
proper for those of graver importance. But neither of these were 
attainable by the mass of a population, who, ground down as they 
were by tithes, taxes, and arbitrary exactionSj had not leisure to 
acquire more than the rudiments of that knowledge needful to 
the adequate discharge of their daily duties. 

At the time to which our view is now directed, the popular 
tongue was rapidly gaining ground upon the Latin and Ffench. 
Not long before, members of schools and universities, had been 
forbidden the use of English within the bounds of their respective 
institutions, being compelled to employ in their conversation 
either Latin or French ; but now this regulation was very care- 
lessly obeyed. The vulgar tongue was often introduced by 
stealth, and only a few years later, Mr. John Cornwall set the 
portentous example of permitting his pupils to translate their 
Latin into English. Though then for the first time admitted to 
the service of learning, this vulgar tongue had already grown up 
to a masculine and hardy form and character : and no sooner had 
it broken over the barriers of aristocratic and scholastic preju- 
dice, than its merits became generally recognized. 

The circumstances of the government conspired with this 
incipient taste, to procure for the new tongue an established res- 
pectability. The fierce war then waged with France, excited an 
animosity towards that nation, which soon extended to their lan- 
guage ; and it became the interest of the king that no part of his 
forces should be united in the bonds of a common idiom with 
those against whom he led them. Accordingly, the French began 



8 

to be abandoned, and the English to assume its place as the 
medium of refined intercourse. Moreover, in order that even 
the uneducated might have it in their power to ascertain the laws 
of the land, and might, in judicial trial, understand the arguments 
urged for and against them, it was ordained by an act of Parlia- 
ment, that all the business of legislation, and of the courts of jus- 
tice, should be transacted in English. 

While these and other internal causes were directly favoring 
the birth of a native literature, many external circumstances were 
strongly tending to the same effect. 

The middle of the fourteenth century was a remarkable epoch 
not only in the history of England, but also of Italy and France. 
It was a time of the breaking forth of new ideas, or of those 
that had been long forgotten. 

The revival of ancient learning had just begun in Italy and 
France. The night of the dark ages was slowly breaking away, 
and the dawn of a better time was beginning, with a faint light, 
to irradiate the horizon. The celebrated Peti-arch was even then 
busy in those investigations, whereby he disinterred so many of 
the productions of the ancient world, and furnished a new stimu- 
lus to the enquiring minds of his own and the succeeding century. 

The beauties of ancient art were again appreciated and zeal- 
ously studied, and modern intellect, lighted up by contact with 
the fire of ancient genius, had already called into being creations 
of the highest excellence. Moved by emulation of Virgil, Dante 
had produced his great and singular poem, as unlike its professed 
model as it is unapproached by any succeeding production. And 
Boccacio and Petrarch were then in the early bloom of their fame. 

The persecution of the Albigenses had desolated Provence, 
and silenced the voice of the Troubadours ; but their melodious 
lays were still the delight of all refined and delicate minds, and 
among the minstrels of England, they were fondly preserved in 
connection with the memory of Richard, the Troubadour King, 
and the reigning monarch's love of chivalry, that ideal life 
which they had celebrated so long. They were also the mo- 
dels of the more popular works of Petrarch, who contributed 
much to the formation of the taste of his times. Hence, many 



of the traits of the " gay science" are found impressed upon 
the earlier productions of our English poets. 

The works of the Trouveres, and the romances of chivalry, 
were the chief entertainments of a literary kind provided for those 
who read for the purpose of amusement. These were contained 
in the langtie d^oui, or dialect of Norman France, which was also 
that employed by the nobility and fashionable society of Eng- 
land. The prevailing taste of the period to which our attention 
is directed, presented a motive to the translation of many of these 
romances into English verse, by persons whom the labor has 
failed to immortalize. Within the reign of Edward the Third, 
these translations became very numerous, enlarging the amount 
of English reading, without much improvement to the readers. 

There were some other influences tending to foster the growth 
of an enquiring spirit, nor less that of the imagination. The last 
crusade had failed about fifty years before, and many of the 
strange tales of those returned from Palestine, were still floating 
among the people, having accumulated no little of the marvellous 
in the course of repetition. The real grandeur of the enterprises 
lent a romantic dignity to every thing connected with them, and 
even procured a poetic belief for the wild and incredible narra- 
tives of Sir John Mandeville. 

The intercourse among the nations of Europe, created by those 
mighty campaigns, was still kept up, from more practical, though 
less imposing motives, and the literature of the nations in the 
south-west of Europe, was to the educated common property. 
Especially was that of Italy of much weight in the formation of 
the taste of the English scholar. 

Such w^ere some of the antecedents productive of literature in 
the English tongue. There were others which, although not 
causative of its existence, served very decidedly to give it direc- 
tion, to form its character^ and furnish it with subject matter of 
general interest. 

The Church of Rome had now reached the utmost limit of her 
temporal authority. During the preceding two centuries, it had 
been almost unbounded. Not only did she lay claim to a posses- 
sion in the mass of the people ; but even the barons and the king 
had been obliged to submit to her impositions, and suffer the penal- 



10 

ties by her inflicted. The ministers of that system were of all 
ranks of society. While thousands of inferior priests mingled 
with the people, and moulded their minds to the purposes of the 
church, those of the higher grades were the peers and compan- 
ions of the noble, and equally wielded those ill-informed but 
haughty spirits ; and the Pope, their imperial head, presumed to 
dictate to kings and emperors, commands which they found it 
dangerous to disobey. Excommunication reduced many a proud 
monarch to the humiliating necessity of acknowledging himself 
the servant and vassal of his holiness the Pope. 

The kings of England had been the firmest in resistance to 
that ecclesiastical domination ; but refractory as were such mon- 
archs as Henry II. and Edward I., they were compelled to yield 
much to the head of the Roman Church. 

Such a degree of power, wielded for so long a time by a body 
of men who enjoyed none of those relations to society, which 
have the greatest influence in restraining the stronger passions, 
gave occasion to numberless abuses. The clergy, high and low, 
had become shamefully corrupt; and their impostures so impu- 
dently gross, that a large proportion of all ranks of the nation was 
beginning to discover the true nature of the papal system, and 
needed only some bold leader to take the first step towards a 
reform. 

Many of the doctrines of the Church, not less than her high- 
handed despotism, and practical immorality, had become offen- 
sive. Doctrines that contradicted the testimony of the senses, 
were losing their hold upon the faith of the intelligent. Image 
and picture worship was never a favorite with our forefathers, 
and the authority which a foreign church had given it, was easily 
shaken. 

Implicit obedience to the priesthood, and salvation through 
their intercession and good works, began to be pretty well under- 
stood among all ranks ; but, hitherto, no public voice had given 
utterance to the private, but very general discontent. The people 
can neither do nor say without a leader, and he was yet wanting. 

In morals, the corrupt example of the clergy had long been 
faithfully followed by their too docile flocks. Never was the pop- 
ular morality of England in a more degraded state. Among the 



11 

higher classes, sumptuousness in dress, food, and equipage had 
been carried to the most foolish extravagance. The greater part 
of their waking existence was employed in pampering and decor- 
ating their persons, and in displaying them in various gorgeous 
pageants. And the vices of the humbler ranks seem to have 
been restrained only by their necessities. At the time to which 
I refer, these evils continued in fashion ; but not without some 
intimations of a change. For, as the means of upholding the 
aristocratic extravagance were drawn ultimately from the labor- 
ing people, among them was beginning to rise a spirit of resist- 
ance to the depravity of their masters, which, hitherto, had made 
itself known only in popular jest and sly strokes of indirect satire. 

Such, then, were some of the leading influences affecting the 
intellectual development of the undergraduates of 1346 — some of 
the agencies which combined to mould the feelings and give 
direction to the views and efforts of Chaucer, Gower, Langlande, 
Mandeville, Barbour, WycklifTe, and the other stars of that first 
constellation in English literature. 

The earliest author in our language, who can justly be called 
great, is Geoffrey Chaucer. His poem, " The Court of Love," 
is, by himself, referred to the year 1346, which is, therefore, 
properly assumed as the earliest date in our literary history. That 
poem was followed, at various intervals, during a long series of 
years, by other works, both in verse and prose, which proved the 
growth of the poet's mind, and his increasing command of the 
stores of his native language. 

The earlier poems of Chaucer were composed when he was 
very young, and are not remarkable for any thing except their 
morality, their perfect virgin purity of thought, which is the more 
striking when contrasted with the popular vices of the age, and 
is perhaps to be accounted for by the influence exerted over him, 
even in boyhood, by his excellent friend, WycklifTe. 

As he advanced in years, his taste became more and more 
affected by the style and productions of the Italian poets, especi- 
ally of Boccacio ; and, from contact with that vigorous mind, he 
acquired greater boldness and energy, but lost much of his native 
moral delicacy of expression , and while turning attention more to 
the duty of reproving vice, indulged himself occasionally too far 



12 

in freedom of speech concerning it. He continued, however, to 
his latest day, not only the reprover of vice, but the zealous 
advocate of pure religion. 

The theological views of his friend and fellow student, Wyck- 
liffe, he defended and maintained, at the risk of his life and con- 
fiscation of his property. He was one of the earliest sufferers for 
the advocacy of the Reformation, in Britain. 

Soon after the publication of his first poems, he was joined by 
Robert Langlande, whose able satire, called " The Visions of 
Piers Plowman," exposed, with bold, strong sense and playful 
wit, the corruptions of the age, and especially of the priesthood. 

To the same labor did John Gower, throughout a long life, 
address himself; but he adopted the new language, with some 
hesitancy and not without committing his reputation also to the 
Latin and French. His longest English poem was the work of 
his old age. The same aspirations after social and civil reforma- 
tion are equally manifest in the heroic poem of John Barbour. 
There was no more devoted advocate of liberty of life and con_ 
science, than that worthy representative of North Britain. His 
subject, the adventures of Robert Bruce, furnished many an 
occasion for the utterance of such sentiment. And his noble and 
beautiful encomium of freedom, has recommended itself so well 
to modern taste, as to be more frequently quoted than any other 
production of his time. 

While those gifted young men entertained their countrymen 
with real poetry, of native growth. Sir John Mandeville pro- 
duced, in his volume of travels, the earliest book of Engiish 
prose. The wild tales and romantic adventures related in that 
singular work, it is true, are more nearly related to poetry ; but 
in form, at least, the far-travelled knight, was the first upon the 
field of prose composition. And if he relates many a tale hard 
to be received, we are not the less inclined to regard him as the 
true father of modern travellers ; nay, should be glad to explain, 
upon the plea of original sin, the appearance of the same trans- 
gression among so many. 

Mandeville has not the vigor of thought nor the nervous style 
of Chaucer or Langlande. He is enfeebled by superstition, and 
so transcendantly credulous, that nothing is too wonderful for his 



13 

belief: consequently, he was no partizan of reform. Although 
entering the field later than Chaucer, and Langlande, he was 
really far behind them in regard to all measures and views of ad- 
vance and improvement. He wrote his work also in Latin and 
French, adopting English with hesitation, as a new fashion, 
which perhaps would not last long. Nevertheless, in his roman- 
tic imagination, and union of poetic feeling with prose harmony, 
he has bequeathed a valuable legacy to English literature. 

But if Mandeville feebly wielded the weapon which he wore, 
another now entered the contest, in whose hand English prose 
was destined to a more efficient purpose. His predecessors only 
assailed prevalent abuse with the light missiles of ridicule ; John 
WycklifFe levelled his artillery at the organized array of false 
doctrine, and proved the church, the author of many of the 
fashionable evils, to be guilty, not only of abuses, but of radical 
and baneful error. 

As a preacher, and lecturer in the University of Oxford, he 
had early begun to reprove the dissolute morals and erroneous 
teaching of the monks and mendicant friars ; but from about 1360, 
through the instrumentality of published essays, he made his 
opinions known throughout the kingdom, and boldly advocated 
a complete reform of the church. He also organized a body! ^ 
itinerant preachers,* who devoting themselves, in poverty an^ 
toil, to the work of instruction, travelled through the country 
proclaiming the pure truths of the gospel. f 

The labours of those men contributed not only to the interests 
of liberty and true religion ; but also to the improvement of the 
English tongue. For, although learned, they discarded the use 
of all foreign idioms in their labours among the people. Wyck- 
liffe himself travelled with them, occasionally ; but spent the 
greater part of his time in writing on the subjects of reformation. 
The amount of his original productions was very great. In the 
sixtenth century, there were extant, not less than one hundred 
and fifty of his essays. But his great work was a translation of 
the scriptures, which, issued in portions, at different times, and 
carried throughout the land by his itinerant preachers, laid a foun- 

* Lingard, vol. iv, page 160. 
t Lecuvj in Bio. Uni. 



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14 

dation at once for the literary style, and for the reformed religion. 
The version was completed just the year before his death. 

Wyckliffe was the first to prove the copiousness and energy 
of English prose. Although his style is antiquated, no reader 
can fail to be moved by its vigor and unaffected earnestness. 

The views which he advocated were found to be so consonant 
to the common feelings and understanding, and urged with such 
a cogency of argument, that they were at once adopted by a 
large proportion of the nation. Under less favourable circum- 
stances, such daring would have cost his life ; but supported, as 
he was, by the representatives of the Commons,* by the king,t and 
his son the Duke of Lancaster,! ^^ advocated with impunity the 
leading principles of liberty || and protestant religion. § 

During the life of Edward III, it was a dangerous matter 
for a foreign power to interfere with either his people or his go- 
vernment ; and all the attempts of the church to impede the pro- 
gress of the reformation were feeble and ineffectual.^ But under 
the minority and afterwards less vigorous reign of his successor, 
the Reformers were called to endure persecution, which, however, 
was for some time conducted with little energy, on account of the 
then existing embarrassments at the head of ecclesiastical authority. 
For immediately after the death of Edward, began the great schism 
of the West, when two, and sometimes three popes were reigning 
at once, and the church presented the remarkable phenomenon of 
a body with a plurality of infallible heads, thwarting, condemning, 
and excommunicating one another. Such a state of things fur- 
nished abundant occasion for animadversion, and permitted, nay, 
rendered inevitable, an unprecedented freedom of speech, con- 
cerning ecclesiastical dignities. In England, where the head of 
the church had even previously begun to lose his hold upon the 
public mind, this was a dangerous blow to his authority. Thus, 
although measures were taken against the Reformers, very much 

* Lingard, vol. iv, page 190. 

t Lingard, vol. iv, page 159. — Lecuy, in Bio. Mir. 

4: Lingard, vol. iv, page 160-1. — Lecuy. 

II Lecuy art. Wyck. in Bio. Uni. 

§Hume. Richard II. Miscel, Trans. 

1 Hume. Lecuy. Lingard Ed. Ill, chap. 2, near the end. 



15 

to the inconvenience of many of them, yet no decidedly efficient 
efforts were made to put them down, until many years afterwards 
when the church had reunited her now divided energies. But, 
ere that time, John Wyckliffe had been called from his earthly 
labors to the enjoyment of his heavenly reward. 

The poet Chaucer, who had defended the principles of the 
Reformer, both in public and private, was also indebted to the 
king and his son of Lancaster, for their invaluable protection ; 
but after the death of Edward, and during the disfavour of the 
Duke of Lancaster, Chaucer, being high in political place, was 
found a more assailable person than the humble priest of Lutter- 
worth had been, and accordingly was deprived of his office, and 
compelled to take refuge in a foreign land. For sometime he 
maintained himself and several other exiles for the same cause, 
upon the remnant of his fortune ; but this became exhausted and 
obliged to make some effort for their support, he returned pri- 
vately to England, where he was apprehended and thrown into 
prison. 

After years of gloom and distress under various forms of per- 
secution his old friend and patron of Lancaster having returned 
to his influence at court, employed it in behalf of the poet, 
rescued him from the grasp of his enemies, and the destitution 
to which they had brought him, procured for him several grants 
from the crown which repaid his losses and enabled him to spend 
his latter days in peace.* 

After the death of Wyckliffe and the other heroes of that first 
Reformation, the means taken to check the spread of their doc- 
trines were more successful. Wyckliffe had, in his own country, 
no immediate successor, to carry forward the work with requisite 
energy. Other able men there were ; but a preacher alone could 
be the leader in such a movement, and a preacher adequate to 
the task was not found. 

The cause languished. The people, again without a spokes- 
man and a head, became discouraged and humbled themselves 
for a century more, to the domination of their spiritual tyrants. 
But the work thus begun did not fail.f In England, a small 

* Suard, in Bio. Uni. 

+ Hume, Richard II. Miscel. Trans. — Lecuy in Bio. Uni. 



/' 



16 

body continued to maintain, in obscurity and persecution, the 
principles of pure religion and the rights of conscience. And a 
certain Bohemian youth, who had listened to the lectures of 
Wyckliffe in the University of Oxford, becoming a convert to 
his doctrines, carried them into his native land ; where they were 
adopted and advocated by the able minds and unshrinking zeal 
of John Huss, and Jerome of Prague. They might desecrate 
the tomb of Wyckliffe, burn his decaying bones and scatter their 
ashes upon the waters; but they could not quench the truth of 
God, which he had taught, and which continued to add to the 
number of its converts, even in the face of persecution and of 
death. For more than a century it struggled against error, supe- 
rior by alHance with the civil power, until supported by the more 
favored Reformation of Germany and Switzerland, it emerged 
into triumphant success. 

In contemplating the facts now stated, one thing must appear 
to the observer of the present day, not a little remarkable. 
Those men who were most active in resistance to tyranny and in 
advocacy of liberty of life and conscience, were the most faith- 
ful adherents of the crown, and when most strenuous in the 
cause of liberty, and the elevation of the people, were the most 
marked by the favor of their highly gifted monarch. This appa- 
rent inconsistency had its origin in causes belonging to the con- 
stitution of society, the ingredients of government, and the for- 
eign relations of the kingdom. 

During the dark ages, which had not even then entirely passed 
away, the people, ignorant and incapable of self government, 
had been compelled to submit to the protection of some persons 
of greater power or wisdom than themselves. And under the 
arrangements of the Saxon government, the most natural refuge 
was in their land-owners and the priest of their district. 

Thus the land-owners, each within his own possessions came 
to divide with the ministers of the church, an almost sovereign 
power, which for a time was wielded to the real benefit of the 
governed ; for the rich man regarded his tenants as his garrison, 
and the only claim of the priest was founded upon his care of 
their spiritual welfare. But in the course of centuries, the pos- 
session of sovereignty had its natural effect in corrupting both ; 



17 

the one became a baronial tyrant, and the other a prince bishop, 
whose cure of souls had become a temporal living, and the 
people were oppressed to the last degree of endurance, in order 
to maintain that double provincial sovereignty.* By William, 
the Conqueror, the feudal system was engrafted upon this very 
congenial stock.j: The King was then the head of the barons, 
and regarding them as the representatives of the nation, with 
them alone transacted public business. It had not been the 
error of the Kings of England so much to neglect the people as 
not to deal with them directly ; but always through the medium 
of their baronial lords, who, with the ecclesiastical dignitaries, 
alone constituted the parliament. In the course of their frequent 
contests with these two powers, the Kings had found out the 
value of the Commons as a support, and cautiously courted their 
favor. The feudal system which had bound the vassals to their 
respective lords, had, previously to the period which we contem- 
plate, begun to wane, and the eyes of the commons to be 
directed to the King as the safest liege lord of all. The insur- 
rection of the barons, under Henry III, and their subsequent 
wars with the crown, resulting in their defeat, had established 
the superiority of the monarch, the commons having, in the 
course of the contest, been courted by both parties, had been 
taught to think themselves not altogether without value in the 
State. But it was not until the reign of Edward III, that they 
were regarded as an integral, indispensible portion of the 
legislative body. 

Several events led Edward, the Third, to a higher estimation 
of the commons, and to pay an increased regard to their interests 
and good will. 

In August 1346, was fought the momentous battle of Creci, 
which is correctly viewed as a trial of strength between the 
mailed clad knight and the light armed soldier of the commons. § 
Hitherto the baronry had arrogated to themselves all the glory 
of warlike achievements, and believed themselves invincible by 
any numbers of humbler rank and lighter armor, and upon this 

* Turner's Anglo Sax. Vol. 2, Append- IV. Hume, Chap. Ill, Appendix. 

I Hume, Chap. IV. 

§ Michelet Book VI. Chap. 1. 

3 



18 

assumption based their claim to superior consideration. A- fair 
trial of strength had not been made, on a scale l&rge enough to 
attract general attention. In the war of the Barons many of 
their numbers were on the side of the King, and they still pre- 
tended that, only division in their own ranks had wrought their 
defeat. They were about to be deprived of such a refuge. 

On the bloody field of Creci were arranged the pride of the 
chivalry of the most chivalrous nation of the world, in their 
completest armor and most devoted valor. They were cut to 
pieces by less than half their number, composed chiefly of Eng- 
lish archers, and ill clad and lightly armed Welsh infantry.* 

In October of the same year, the same cause was tried with 
the same result at the battle of Nevil's Cross. f 

The ordinary on-looker failed to read the lesson hi' those well 
fought fields ; but it did not escape the quick understanding 
of the King of England. The people were not only the most 
trustworthy, and those whose interest most nearly coincided with 
his own ; but they were the strongest in the day of battle ; and 
well did they repay his penetration, in many a later contest, 
both of war and peace. Hence, Edward III., as far as consisted 
with his arbitrary temper, favored the interests of the people. 
He has been fairly called the father of English commerce ;l by 
him was the right of the people to determine what taxes should 
be laid upon them first established in practice, || and by him their 
regular, systematic representation in Parliament confirmed ;§ he 
sustained them in shaking ojfT the tribute imposed by the Pope ; 
he first granted them laws and judicial trial in their own lan- 
guage ;1I he sustained those who defended the rights of the people 
against the oppression of the other two states ; and many other of 
the dearest rights of Englishmen, and the descendants of English- 
men, date from the same illustrious reign. 

The people, on their side, finding in the power and favor of 
the king, a means of protection against the other two states, rea- 
dily paid that service which he demanded. For they perceived 

* Froisart. Hume. Michelet. 

+ Lingard. 

i Hallam. || Lingard. § Lecuy, 

% Hume, Ed. HI. Miscel. Trans, near the end. 



19 



-.1 ar.fl the head which a large 
t,>at inhimtheiv*e„g* was united an^^^^^^^^ 

,„dy of people always n^^'J-^^, ,„,,,eed the interests 
ever was a demagogue ^'\f ■^„- ^11 three states mto, 
of the whole nation, and -"> ^ ;' J™5„; ^^ the crown. Thv« 
«hat he deemed, a proper ^"^^"^^^ ,^, one against the 
could he hrought al^out only hj^bala- g^^^^.^^ ^^ ^^^ . 

other, which, 0^^^:^^::::::^, 3ust,y regarded the .rng 
men people. The peop , ^^^ protector. Ihey 

whether interested or not as tn ^^^. ^^ ^^^ ecclesiast,- 

had come to that pomt of *— "J^ ,,, the cause of liberty. 
eal tyranny, when tho <;-;; "^^een the bold language. 
And hence the perfect »»!'^;"^5^.g. ^anglande and Chaucer, 
sentiments and P™^'P ' ^^ ^J*' Id government of the mon- 
with their attachment to th P- » /^^ J^otection of himself and 
,,ch, and their ready -^^^P*™^;°; *tir only security agarnst a 
of his family. Monarchy wa. ft n«>^^J^^^ ^^^^^^ ^,l,t,ons 
more terrible despotism. The trm ^^^ ^^^ ^^^,. 

Le changed, "nder the de esUbl He„^y^^ ^^ . 
t„ry daughter, El-abedr be th o ^^^.^^^^ ^ ,, 

obstructing or pervertrng ev ry etto ^^^^ .^^ ^^^^ 

civil liberty ; and the day s on ato ^^^^ ^^^ 1 

could no longer ^\^-''']'''^'J'l^\^, of Edward the Thrrd_ 
but things were o«J^='«f " *' ^ master of the people, and 
Then, the K-g, although reaUyft ^^^^ ^^^ , e^m- 

well enough disposed '" ^^^^J^, their leader, and the 
stances of his reign, ^PP^^'^/tn^, because it led to the only 
people defended the cause of the Km , ^^^^^^ jVl- 

Tp' towards libera, ^f ^' ;;f X no— '--^' ^'"^ 
though many of the «orks of the » ^^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^ 
-rbt^triltetrceswhich tended to develope 

nr:::— ^f1fers:o?r;o. 

1st English literature ^ok its ^ ^^.^ interest was it 

..■ ^ Trans Statute of Provisoes. 
*Hume. Ed. III. Miscel. Trans. 



> 



20 

the hot-house plant nursed in the favor of an aristocracy, but the 
instrument of popular instruction, and the utterance of truth and 
beauty, which find their appreciation in the respectable ranks of 
the commonality. 

2ndly. It was not the blind attempt of ignorant beginners; 
but of men well educated, familiar with the rules of art, and 
holding such a definite object before them, that art was made 
subservient to utility — an example which, well followed, has 
given our literature that expressly practical bearing by which it 
is distinguished. 

Srdly. It was poetical ; but its poetry was not a factitious 
thing of mere display, to embody fanciful conceits, to sound the 
praises of a great lord, or gratify a fastidious taste ; but a manly 
and graceful expression of real emotion, pictures of actual life 
and practical lessons of morals and religion — a fit antecedent to 
that series of ages which have produced a list of poets eminent 
over all others, ancient and modern, for their profound truth and 
broad foundations in reality. 

4thly. Our literature, was from the first, enriched by learning, 
obtained through other tongues, and digested into the native sys- 
tem. And — 

Above all, it had a grand political and religious bearing and 
design ; being the first light of the Reformation, and coincident 
with and conducive to the first steps towards political freedom. 
From the dawn of its existence, the instrument of religious and 
and civil liberty, its first utterance was a condemnation of eccle- 
siastical error and moral turpitude ; was a plea for sound religion 
and purity of life, for equal rights and the exercise of individual 
judgment ; and of all its excellencies, none have been more 
directly or zealously cultivated. Every point of eminence in the 
history of our language, has been marked by the same protestant 
and independent character. 

I have only to recal your thoughts to that brilliant era, which 
fell on the latter days of Elizabeth and the reign of James — to 
the giant minds of the Commonwealth — to the days of the Revo- 
lution — to those of George III., — and point to the triumphs of the 
nineteenth century, to furnish proof that English literature is con- 
secrated to protestantism, and her own brother, civil liberty. 



21 

Such, then, are some of the items of the hereditary possession 
of the language we employ, of which I conceive that the last 
mentioned is by far the most striking to every external observer, 
and that one by which its nationality is most extensively distin- 
guished. 

To our own perceptions, familiarity has prevented the detec- 
tion of it as any thing peculiar ; but a very little comparison will 
assure the enquirer of the truth, that it is a possession to which 
no other literature of modern times can lay claim. Where shall 
we look for another to which it belongs, as an original and unal- 
ienated inheritance ? Shall it be to Italy, which, from the days 
of Dante down to the present, has lain in the fetters of both eccle- 
siastical and poHtical bondage ? Shall it be to Germany ; where 
the very mention of liberty is treason ? Shall it be to France ? 
Vigorous, indeed, have been the efforts of that remarkable peo- 
ple to break the fetters rivetted upon them, by the despotism of 
centuries ; but their literature has only recently attempted to ac- 
quire that possession which has belonged to English from its 
birth, and grown with its growth for five hundred years. I 
bring no accusation against the literatures of other lands. Many 
of them are invaluable, all discharge respectively their proper 
duties in the work of human improvement, and for much are we 
their debtors; but granting to them peculiar possessions of their 
own, I claim the advocacy of liberty and protestant religion as 
the inheritance of our own beautiful and manly tongue. 

True, every author whom it includes, has not been actuated 
by kindred motives, nor been careful to maintain the integrity of 
such an inheritance; but, upon the whole, so well has it been 
cultivated that even our common idioms have become, to the 
defenders of civil or ecclesiastical tyranny or imposition, exceed- 
ingly awkward weapons. Indeed, of late the more cautious of 
such writers seem to have felt the expediency of evading plain 
and idiomatic English. Our freedom of speech has occasionally 
been abused ; but, after all, our literature is purer, in a moral 
sense, than those which enjoy not its civil liberty. 

Attempts, mistaken attempts have, at various periods, been 
made to change its character and to deprive it of this noble 
birthright. A false scholarship, at one time, endeavored to force 



22 

upon it the mask of ancient Rome, and make of it a heteroge- 
neous thing, of no independent form or standing; but the attempt 
resulted only in leaving its champions obsolete. A later effort 
was made to confine it to the procrustean measure of the school 
of Boileau, which had an equally calamitous effect upon its 
advocates. Within our own century we have been threatened 
with an obscuration from the regions of Kant and Fichte ; but 
the danger has been of limited extent and short duration. 
Already those illdefined productions of cloudland are passing 
away from the face of the serene sky of pure and native English. 
Invaluable are the productions of Roman, French, or German 
intellect; but however just the admiration of their beauties, 
however praiseworthy to learn from the lessons of their wisdom, 
neither can justify us when, for the sake of adopting their 
peculiar style of thought and expression, we would destroy 
the individuality of our own. Ill advised must he be who 
could wish to divert into another channel, a literature, which, in 
following its hereditary course, is doing more for the social, and 
civil, and religious regeneration of mankind, than all the litera- 
tures of the world besides. Is not our language even in reformed 
Europe, recognized as eminently and characteristically, the lan- 
guage of protestantism, and known, wherever it is known, as 
the language of freemen? Is it not, beyond all comparison, the 
language of protestant missions? — Yes, in our daily intercourse, 
we are employing a medium of communication which is wielding 
the most powerful and salutary influence over the destinies of the 
world ; and that which to heathen lands is almost the only for- 
eign tongue that proclaims the principles of just freedom and 
Bible truth. — An influence and a praise which has been obtained 
by the exercise of those very faculties developed in it, from the 
beginning, by the great men of that distant era which we have 
been contemplating. 

Moreover, it is an inheritance, which, invaluable at the first, 
has been enriched and expanded by the successive additions of 
more than fifteen most active generations. Century after century 
has the current of English literature been flowing on, and widen- 
ing and deepening, and increasing the number of its tributaries, 
until now, even the productions of a nation added to it are but 



23 

like a rill to the waters of the Ohio. No feeble ray at its rising, 
it has continued unremittingly to augment and to diffuse its 
brightness. Already has it bound the earth in its girdle of light. 
There is not an hour, in the whole circle of the sun, when the 
principles called into action by Wyckliffe, are not operating 
through the medium of that language which he was the first to 
consecrate to such a purpose. 

And now, young gentlemen, permit me to recommend the ex- 
ertion of your utmost effort to place yourselves among the worthy 
heirs of this noble inheritance, and to maintain its integrity in 
the hands of your generation. As far as God has gifted you 
respectively with talent, strive towards the completion of the 
obvious mission of our branch of the human family, never sub- 
jecting either your faith or politics to any man or set of men ; 
but guided by that monitor which God has planted within you, 
and that Holy Word which He has set before you, be always 
ready to take the next correct step in advancement towards the 
grand desideratum, the regeneration of all mankind. Contribute 
your efforts, that wherever our literature extends it may carry the 
pure principles of those by whom it was founded : and in the 
exercise of your faculties to such an end, may you, also, be at- 
tended by the efficient energy of that God, in whose service they 
were content to suffer and to toil. 



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